Abundance of (Mis)Information

Abundance. The opposite of scarcity and shortage. While abundance may sound like a good thing, that’s only for some people, writes David Parell:

“Abundance is a paradox. Environments of abundance are bad for the median consumer but extremely good for a small number of conscious ones. Average consumers are doomed to the tyranny of instinct. Meanwhile, consumers at the top are propelled by unlimited access to nutritious food and information.”

 

The parallels between abundance of food and information are revealing:

“The parking lot was full of restaurants, but there were no healthy options. Americans are overweight, not because of scarcity but because of abundance — just like the news.”

 

While there’s abundance of information on the Internet, he says, “the Internet makes it hard to find nutrient-dense information”. You can find the junk food equivalent of information effortlessly on the Net:

“On the Internet, low-quality content drives out high-quality content, as the most wide-read articles are polarizing and emotionally jarring. First, they distort the truth by eliminating nuance and adding emotional charge to important topics.”

 

And that’s the key point: most articles do not seek to inform. Rather:

“If you check almost any major publication, the most popular stories are opinionated and fear-inducing. They draw us in because they sway our base-level instincts in irresistible ways.”

As he rightly warns:

“If you serve as a mechanical slave to mass media and online algorithms, you’ll end up with intellectual diabetes.”

 

But it’s not all gloom and doom. After all:

“The Internet is filled with high-quality information, so savvy information consumers have access to more high-quality knowledge than at any point in human history.”

 

The way out then? For one, remind yourself that:

“Careful consumers use the information at their fingertips to compound their wisdom while compulsive ones drown in a volcano of fire-burning rage.”

And act as follows:

“Skip the news cycle, but double-down on measured consumption.”